


(A Love Song) Like the Way It's Meant to Be

by Chash



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-03
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2019-01-29 02:58:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12621604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chash/pseuds/Chash
Summary: Clarke knows that Bellamy is always trying to make some extra cash, so a newlywed game seems like the perfect fit. After all, they're roommates, and he's one of her best friends. There's no way they aren't going to rock that.





	(A Love Song) Like the Way It's Meant to Be

**Author's Note:**

> Happy November, friends! If you've been thinking I haven't been posting much recently and not sure why, rest assured it is because I have a buttload of prompts for my holiday extravaganza, and I've been working on getting those ready. So, less fic now, but 1-4 fics per day from November 23 to December 31. Get pumped and/or resigned!

One of the first things Clarke learned about Bellamy Blake was that he saw money in a fundamentally different way than she did. 

It wasn't surprising, really; he grew up scraping by, and she didn't. But it was still strange to realize that Bellamy had worked in high school because he really needed money, not experience, that he entered essay contests and academic events for the prizes, not to pad out his college application. And even now, years out of college with a good job and enough savings, he's still a little bit strange about money. If she buys pizza and doesn't ask him for money, he won't offer any, but if they go out to dinner he'll always insist on splitting the bill. If she gets him a present, he'll make sure to reciprocate. He refuses to ever pay any less than his full rent, even though Clarke owns their place, but when she offers to lower his rate after a year for good behavior, he agrees without hesitation. None of it bothers her, but she is aware of it. She's always had enough money, and he hasn't. That matters.

It also means he's still always looking for opportunities to make money, which is why, when she sees the newlywed contest, she turns her laptop to him and says, "Want to do this?"

He glances up from his book, squinting at the screen. "Newlywed game?"

"It's for charity, the entry fee is five bucks, and the grand prize is $200. We could split it."

"When we win a contest for couples."

"Have you ever seen that game? It's not hard."

"No?"

"You don't have to marry someone, you just have to know them. Or, know them right."

He puts his bookmark in and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Okay, this I have to hear. Tell me all your strategies for the newlywed game. I'm genuinely curious. How often do you think about this? I thought you were only like this with Jeopardy."

"They’re not _strategies_ ,” she protests. “It’s just—what I should be writing down isn't my favorite candy, it's what you think my favorite candy is. So it's the candy you see me eating most, not--" 

"Those chocolate seahorses you got in Paris when you were twelve," he supplies. “I ordered some for you online last year.”

"Okay, bad example," she admits. "But that's why we talk about it! We can look at some of the questions they use, talk about the answers--"

"Jesus Christ," he says, laughing. "Do you seriously want to _cheat_ at the newlywed game?"

"It's preparation. You know the other teams are going to do it too. It's the information age, Bellamy. We want to have the best chance at winning, right?"

"Winning a contest we shouldn't even be entering because we're not a couple?"

"Do you or do you not want a hundred bucks?"

"Always. But I didn't think you were this desperate for cash."

"Not _that_ desperate. It's just for fun."

"They're expecting us to be married."

"Not _married_. Just a couple. I checked.”

"So we need an entire fake romantic background. Which they're going to ask us about. It's going to be a ton of work for, again, a hundred bucks."

"Yeah, but we have a week to do it, right? It'll be fun."

He pauses. "I was going to ask if spending a week constructing a complicated dating backstory for us to win a negligible amount of money was really _fun_ , but then I remembered this is you we're talking about, so--"

"So we obviously know each other really well and this is going to be a breeze."

He snorts. "Obviously, yeah. So, how long have we been together?"

It's actually pretty fun, coming up with a plausible timeline of their relationship. They've known each other for three years, ever since Clarke put out a call for someone to rent the spare room in her condo, and Octavia said her brother could use a place. Clarke hadn't particularly expected it to last, but a good roommate is hard to find, and Bellamy is a great one. They get along easily, and it's not hard to turn their real backstory into a romance. Clarke’s done it dozens of times in idle fantasies.

"So, a year, you think?" he asks, looking at the google spreadsheet he's using to create a timeline. "Or two?"

"Take the average, a year and a half."

He snorts. "Yeah, okay. So, that would put our anniversary around--December?"

"We could put it at New Year's. We had a party, one thing lead to another, boom, relationship."

"Wow, so romantic. No wonder I fell for you."

"Basically my one move is getting drunk and showing off my boobs."

"That would definitely work on me," he grants. "Okay, so, if they ask who made the first move, which one of us is it? You or me?"

"Getting drunk and showing off your boobs is definitely you making the first move."

"I can live with that." She leans over his shoulder. "Get the list of questions up again."

"I still think this is cheating."

"It's not cheating, it's figuring out our relationship dynamics. I'm not telling you anything you _should_ know," she adds, because that was one of his weird conditions, and she's going to respect that, even if she thinks it's a little bit silly. "We're coming up with answers to things like _who hogs the covers_ \--"

"Definitely you."

"And _who said I love you first_."

"Probably me," he muses.

"You think?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. Could probably go either way, but I think I'd do it."

"I'm good with that, you’re more romantic. Do you snore?"

"If I do, no one's told me about it. You?"

"Same. Okay, um--first date?"

"Do you think we went on dates?" he asks.

"You don't?"

"Formal dating never did much for me. And it doesn't really feel like us, I guess."

"Yeah? What's us?"

"We already live together, we'd probably just hang out in the apartment watching Netflix."

"So our first date was here. And we were wearing pajamas."

"Sounds about right, yeah." He rubs the back of his neck. "This isn't weird for you?"

"Which part?"

"Coming up with how we'd hypothetically act if we were hypothetically together?"

"Well, they're PG-rated, so it's not like we have sex questions to deal with. Just--us."

"Just us, yeah. Okay. Big spoon or little spoon?" he asks, and if there was any awkwardness, it passes.

At least until Raven finds out about the whole thing on Friday.

Admittedly, Clarke was kind of hoping no one else would ever find out. It seemed unlikely that any of their friends would actually be at the event, and as long as they weren't, there would be no way for them to find out.

Except that Clarke is a little tipsy, so when Bellamy orders a Jack and Coke, she says, "That's your third drink tonight."

"What are you, my mom? You're on your third already."

"No, I meant your third _different_ drink. I've just been getting the cider. For your edification. But you're not giving me any solid data about your favorite drink."

"Why do you want to know Bellamy's favorite drink?" Raven asks.

She's going to come up with an excuse, but Bellamy doesn't bother. "She signed us up for the newlywed game tomorrow."

Gina frowns. "Congratulations?"

"There's a cash prize and she's the most competitive person on the planet," he says. "You do the math. I already knew cider was your favorite alcoholic beverage," he adds, to Clarke. "Get on my level."

"Hey, I _thought_ yours was--" She pauses, trying to remember his exact order. "Hendricks martini, up, dry, two olives."

He laughs. "I don't have to get my favorite every time, Clarke. Hendricks is expensive."

"I charge you the same amount for all your cocktails and you know it," Gina points out.”

“And I’m making sure you don’t bankrupt the bar doing it.”

"But I'm right," Clarke persists. "Right?"

"You're the one who thought you were wrong."

"You were making me second guess myself!"

"Okay, hold up," says Raven. "I'm still stuck on you guys playing the newlywed game. Did you fake a marriage certificate or actually get married? I wouldn't put it past you guys to decide to get courthouse-married just to win--how much?"

"Two hundred dollars," says Bellamy. "The marriage licence probably costs more than that."

"And it's for couples, not just spouses, so we didn’t have to get married anyway."

"Yeah, we just came up with a fake dating history, not a fake marriage."

"Ooh," says Gina. "What's the fake history? This is a good chance to practice."

Bellamy walks her through the story, with Clarke interjecting as necessary and Gina asking helpful questions to help them flesh out the details, but Raven is quiet, which is, in Clarke's experience, always a sign of danger. When Raven is contributing to the conversation, it's fine, but when she's thinking, things are bound to go wrong.

Well, from a personal perspective, anyway. Raven is, in general, a genius who's going to save the world with her amazing thoughts, but she also never lets Clarke get away with anything, and this is, admittedly, a lot to get away with.

So of course she sidles up when Bellamy is in the bathroom.

"Your idea?"

"The newlywed thing? Yeah. You know Bellamy, he'll take any opportunity to make a few bucks."

"But it was your idea."

"I'll take any opportunity to help Bellamy make a few bucks. It's not like it's hard. We already know each other, we just needed to come up with a backstory."

"Jesus, you really are the most competitive person in the world, aren't you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You want to actually _prove_ you know your roommate better than anyone else. Like, you're going to a contest to show everyone. And making up a whole lot of fake shit but _not_ cheating on any real stuff."

"That was Bellamy's idea, not mine," she protests. "I was fine with cheating."

"But you thought you wouldn't need to."

"We mostly don't. He's my best friend, of course I know him."

"Uh huh. But you're not doing this with me."

"You don't want to do it, do you?"

"I'm just saying, you asked him. Not anyone else."

"And?"

"And maybe there's a reason you want to pretend you're dating Bellamy. And why you love it when people mistake you for a couple. You know you tell me every time that happens, right?"

"It's funny! I'm keeping count. Whenever we hit a multiple of ten, we buy a six-pack."

"Which is totally normal." She finishes her drink. "Just saying, this whole thing would be a lot easier if you guys actually started dating. You'd know all the answers and no fake backstory required."

"They said you had to have been dating for a year," Clarke protests, like that is in any way relevant to her larger point. "So we would need a story anyway."

Raven rolls her eyes, but Bellamy is coming back, so she doesn’t press. "Great reason not to date him, yeah. Can't believe I didn't think of that one."

"Yeah," says Clarke. "I thought so."

It's not like _not_ dating Bellamy bothers her. It's the kind of thing that's completely logical. If they were on a sitcom, they would probably be the focus couple, the will they/won't they romance that the writers were reluctant to resolve because the tension is an important part of their dynamic. 

It's easy to think of ways she _could_ date him, but hard to put any of them into practice. It's just too risky. She has everything to lose.

So she and Raven stop talking about that, and they move on, like they always do. On Saturday, she and Bellamy head over to the contest, give their donation and sign up, and then they're off.

The whole setup is kind of hilariously weird. They have a ton of people signed up and are doing it as some sort of bizarre tournament, starting with large groups and eliminating people as soon as they screw up two answers.

It starts off pretty easy, the kind of questions they were expecting, stuff that's easy for the volunteers to eyeball without much effort, one or two words. She and Bellamy don't have any trouble with that, because it's all second nature. He wakes up first, he's the better cook; she controls the remote and washes the dishes. There are a few of the lies they came up with mixed in too, but it's stuff they prepared for, like who made the first move and whose family is more difficult. They seem like questions designed to weed people out quickly, the ones where couples are most likely to have differences of opinion, but she and Bellamy are fairly realistic about their own faults. The biggest risk, in her opinion, is that Bellamy will be too hard on himself, but he likes teasing her enough that he's happy to give her credit for things like taking the longest in the bathroom and being less likely to notice he's sick.

(For _Who's more likely to get in a fight on the internet_ , they both write _TIE_ , in large block letters, and that's the first time one of the volunteers calls attention to them, so everyone can enjoy it.)

The second round starts when they’re down ten couples, and she and Bellamy make it in without missing a single answer. This round is on stage, in front of more of an audience, both disqualified couples and people just around for the other fundraiser events who want to see what’s going on and/or heckle. These questions skew more towards responses they think will get a good laugh, stuff like, _If your partner was a superhero, what would their superpower be?_ , and they aren’t disqualified immediately after two wrong answers. Everyone participates, and the highest scores will advance. 

It's this kind of thing that she was sure she and Bellamy would excel at, and they mostly do. There are a couple times when they think too hard, going too far into the rabbit hole of _what do I think they think I'd write_ instead of just going with their first impulse, but they still do well enough to make it to the top two.

"All right," says the host, rubbing her hands together like this is her favorite thing. "We've made it to the final round. The format will be sudden death, and the first couple to give an incorrect answer is out. But before we get started, let's get to know our finalists a little better."

The other couple is cute, a couple of girls who have been married for a year. If they win, Clarke's not going to be _that_ upset; they probably deserve it. 

"Now, Clarke and Bellamy, the two of you are roommates," says the host. "Dating for a year and a half now?"

"Yeah," says Bellamy. "I assume we shouldn't give out too many details, in case it's one of the questions later."

"I thought we should talk about our favorite foods and hobbies and deepest secrets," Clarke adds. "Just so everyone's clear. No ulterior motives.”

"You like long walks on the beach, right?"

"Yeah, you should definitely put that for every answer."

"I knew it."

The host smiles. "Let's see how that works out for you, then. Ready, contestants?"

Clarke would like to say she doesn't care about winning, but of course she does. As everyone knows, as she and Bellamy both admitted in the first round, she's very competitive, and the fact that they're trying to win a contest they shouldn't even be in doesn't stop her from being over-invested in it.

But Lexa and Costia are good, and seem about as competitive as they are, so it's a real battle.

Until it isn’t.

"All right, for question ten, let's go romantic. Clarke, Costia, when did your partner first realize they loved you?"

It's not something she and Bellamy specifically discussed, but there's only one date he can really use, given their timeline. If he wants to be tricky, he could say something like _the third date_ , but the only person he'd trick would be _her_ , which defeats the purpose. He wants to win, so he’d use something she might actually get. And there’s only one date that fits the bill.

Costia gets it right-- _my twenty-fifth birthday_ \--and tells a cute story about how Lexa was so genuinely alarmed by the realization that she came to complain about it immediately, and it took Costia about ten minutes to figure out what she was saying and why it was a problem. So, again, if they win, Clarke will only be a little pissed.

The host gives them a big smile, then turns her attention to Clarke and Bellamy. "All right, Clarke. What do you think?"

"December 31, 2016," she says, showing her whiteboard. "The night we got together."

Bellamy is smiling at her, this strange, small smile she can't quite read. "Sorry," he says, and flips his own board.

"October 3, 2016," the host supplies, when Bellamy doesn't. "A little earlier than you told her, huh?"

He shrugs. "It worked out, didn't it?"

"So, what happened on October 3?"

"Nothing special. We were watching Jeopardy and she was yelling at the TV and I just knew."

"Seriously?" Clarke asks, making sure her tone doesn't give her away to anyone but him.

"I like when you yell at Jeopardy," he says, and given they just _lost_ , it would be weird if she kissed him.

The host probably isn't thinking the exact same thing, but it's along those lines. "Well, as sweet as that is, the newlywed game is unforgiving. Bellamy and Clarke, you'll be going home with a $50 gift certificate from Pike's Pub, and Costia and Lexa are our big winners!"

They get the gift certificate and pose for a few pictures before they're finally alone, and Clarke seizes the front of his shirt and pulls him down to kiss him as soon as they are. He's laughing a little, but it doesn't last long; his arms slide around her and he's kissing her back as if he's trying to make it count, make it clear just how much he wasn't joking.

The assurance is unnecessary, but not unwelcome.

"You couldn't have waited until after we _won_?" she asks, and he laughs and rests his forehead on hers.

"We agreed, you're the competitive one, I'm the dramatic one. I couldn't resist. We can try again next year," he adds, with a teasing smirk. "I bet we'd get extra credit for the origin story."

They don't get any extra credit, but they do handily win first place next year. 

It's really not hard, once they're on the same page.


End file.
